y
called 'the ward-room mess', and the dining-room 'the mess deck'. The
cookhouse with them was the galley; rations were victuals; and kit was
gear. In July 1918 an order was issued by the Air Ministry prescribing
the terms to be adopted in the new force. The use of starboard and port
for right and left was ordered as a concession to the sailors; and at
all air stations the time of day was to be denoted, as on board ship, by
the sounding of bells. In some few cases the naval and, military usages
were both discarded in favour of a new term proper to the air force.
Thus, non-commissioned officers and men, who are described in the navy
as 'ratings' and in the army as 'other ranks', were named, in accordance
with a practice which had already grown up, 'airmen'. Names are full of
compliment and fantasy: 'airman' is the official name for those members
of the air force who spend their time and do their work on the ground.

These are not light matters. One of the strongest bonds of human
sympathy is community in habits of speech. Divergences in speech are
fruitful in every kind of hostility. It was a Scottish captain of the
merchant marine who expressed a dislike for the French, and when called
on for his reasons, replied that as a people they are ridiculous, for
they call a boy a 'mousse'.

The navy and the army have always been loyal comrades, ready to help
each other at short notice. These relations persisted between the two
branches of the air force. In the scheme for the Royal Flying Corps it
had been provided that each branch of the service should be treated as a
reserve to the other branch. Thus in a purely naval war the whole of the
Flying Corps was to be available for the navy, and in a war that should
call for no assistance from the navy (if such a war can be conceived)
the whole of the corps was to be available for the army. In accordance
with these ideas machines flown by naval officers played a very
successful part in the army manoeuvres of 1912 and 1913.

Further, in order to co-ordinate the efforts of the Admiralty and the
War Office, a permanent consultative committee, called the Air
Committee, was provided for in the original scheme, and held its first
meeting in July 1912. This committee was a kind of nucleus of an Air
Ministry; the importance attached to it may be judged from its
composition. Colonel Seely, by this time Secretary of State for War,
was its first chairman, and later on Vice-Admiral Sir John J